Pokémon (franchise)
gauge, and whomever gauge runs out first loses; however, a trainer can have several Pokémon, so if one Pokémon's gauge reaches zero (called "Fainting"), they can send out another Pokémon. Each trainer can carry a maximum of 6 Pokémon, although many more can be caught and stored in a PC. In order to try to knock out the opposing Pokémon, Pokémon attack each other. Pokémon can learn up to four attacks, although there are many more attacks that they are capable of learning. When all of a Trainer's Pokémon have fainted, the trainer must depart to a Pokémon Center and hands an amount of money. History Pokémon was the brainchild of a Japanese man named Satoshi Tajiri, born August 28, 1965. As a child, Tajiri was fascinated with insects, and loved to hunt and collect different species of them, as well as devise new methods to attract them. Eventually, whilst Tajiri was in his early teens, most of the areas where Tajiri liked to hunt for bugs were replaced with modern establishments or demolished. No longer having the opportunity to collect insects, Tajiri created a fantasy in his mind about his adventures, his thoughts eventually evolving into a complicated idea. During the same time, Tajiri gained an interest in video games. In 1982, Tajiri formed a magazine with a few of his friends dedicated to video games. The name of this magazine was Game Freak. Over the years, Game Freak's focous changed from covering gaming news into creating games — they officially announced themselves as a video game developer in 1989, and released their first game, Mario & Yoshi, in 1991, for both the Game Boy and the NES. They subsequently released several other games, but in 1996 they struck gold; they, along with the help of Creatures and Nintendo, released Pocket Monsters Akai and Pocket Monsters Midori in Japan. The games were both a hit, with Akai doing best, and Nintendo decided to translate the games to English and release them in North America and Europe. Before this, they remade the games with the improved Pocket Monsters Blue, and thus incorporated the improvements into the two games to be released in North America. Since Pocket Monsters was already trademarked by another company in the United States, they needed to change the name – so, they just combined the words to form Pokémon. Since Midori did not sell well, they decided to change some aspects of it for the American release — including changing the name from the translated Green to Blue (although a "Blue" version was also released in Japan earlier, which improved on the original games). Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue were both very successful in North America, and a series was born. The past English-language catchphrase was: "Gotta Catch `em all!" Game Releases The games are generally released in pairs. For example, two games will be immediately released that are basically the same, except with several minor changes, and later, another improvement upon the last two games will be released. After this, work will begin on a new pair, which will have a vastly different story and various game play improvements. Examples of this are Pokémon Red and Blue, which are generally the same game, except certain Pokémon can only be obtained in either one. Shortly after the release of Pokémon Red and Blue, an improvement on these games was released; Pokémon Yellow, which featured improved color, and the addition of a Pikachu which followed the main character. List of Games The following lists all of the games in the Pokémon franchise. Main Series Games Game Boy * ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Pokémon Green'' (Japan) * ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Pokémon Blue'' (Overseas) * Pokémon Yellow Game Boy Color * ''Pokémon Gold'' and ''Pokémon Silver'' * Pokémon Crystal Game Boy Advance * ''Pokémon Ruby'' and ''Pokémon Sapphire'' * ''Pokémon FireRed'' and ''Pokémon LeafGreen'' * Pokémon Emerald Nintendo DS * ''Pokémon Diamond'' and ''Pokémon Pearl'' * Pokémon Platinum * Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver * ''Pokémon Black'' and ''Pokémon White'' Spin-off Games Game Boy * Pokémon Pinball * Pokémon Trading Card Game Game Boy Color * Pokemon Puzzle Challenge Game Boy Advance * ''Pokémon Pinball Ruby and Sapphire'' * ''Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team'' Nintendo DS * Pokémon Dash * ''Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team'' * ''Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Time'' and ''Explorers Of Darkness'' * Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky * Pokémon Trozei! * Pokémon Ranger * Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia * Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs * Battle and Get! Pokémon Typing DS Nintendo 3DS * ''Pokédex 3D'' * Super Pokémon Scramble Nintendo 64 * Hey You, Pikachu! * Pokémon Snap * Pokémon Puzzle League * Pokémon Stadium * Pokémon Stadium 2 Game Cube * Pokémon Colosseum * Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness * Pokémon Box Ruby and Sapphire * Pokémon Channel Wii * Pokémon Battle Revolution * My Pokémon Ranch * PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure * Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Stormy, Blazing, and Light Adventure Squads * Pokémon Rumble Gallery Trivia * The main symbol of the Pokémon as a whole is the Poké Ball. * The second symbol of Pokémon is Pikachu. (mainly anime) * There are 151 (if you count mew) original Pokémon. * Mewtwo comes before Mew in the National and Kanto Pokédex See also * List of topics related to Pokémon * List of Pokémon * Satoshi Tajiri External links * Official Pokémon site * Pokémon banned in Saudi Arabia * Pokémon Pick Up Lines Category:Pokémon